What are the culturally responsive leadership theories that inform your decisions or actions?

RE: Discussion – Module 4 (Three Week Discussion)
COLLAPSE
For this week’s discussion I interviewed two change leaders in my community. I interviewed out new Superintendent and a school board incumbent who is running for reelection. The questions I used in my interview and their answer summaries follow:
Questions:
Please describe your understanding of culturally responsive education practices.
Please describe your role (currently or in the past) with implementing or advocating for the implementation of culturally responsive education practices.
Please describe how the district and school board work together to design and implement
culturally responsive education practices. Please describe how you evaluate (in your role) the effectiveness of those policies once WCSD implements them.
What are the culturally responsive leadership theories that inform your decisions or actions? What are the important considerations in your role (i.e., authentic leadership, social justice leadership, ethical leadership, and/or moral transformative leadership)?
Interview A, Superintendent:
Please describe your understanding of culturally responsive education practices.
I am new to this area and am still learning about the issues specific to this district. My district has done much work surrounding CREP’s, however; the last two years have shown that there is room for growth and understanding surrounding CREP’s in this district and community. It is our mission as a district to continually build district-wide capacity around CREP’s. This work is continuous, and I will work closely with the equity department to audit and expand established systems and structures. My expectation is that sites are and will continue to utilize CREP in PLC’s, grade level planning, and behavior planning, as well as all aspects of their programs, polices, and decisions that impact the climate and culture of our schools, students, families, and staff.
Please describe your role (currently or in the past) with implementing or advocating for the implementation of culturally responsive education practices.
As superintendent, I have identified four themes to guide our district this year. I am calling them the “Four Cs” they are coherence, care, communication, and celebration, and all four are part of everything we do, including CREP’s. By creating lines of communication both within the district and between the district and families and community is central to success and healing. I also educating children and CREP’s role in that. Our Area Superintendents will now report to Dr. Parks so that they can work side-by-side with our teaching and learning teams to support instruction in our schools and equitable follow through of policy and procedure.
Please describe how the district and school board work together to design and implement
culturally responsive education practices. Please describe how you evaluate (in your role) the effectiveness of those policies once WCSD implements them.
There has been some contention between the board, community, and district office for some time. Misinformation and miscommunication have been responsible and that’s another place where the “Four C’s” come into action. By coherence, care, communication, and celebration we can reconcile the past and move forward together. Evaluation processes have been in effect for some time and can be seen through the equity office. Our school star ratings, climate surveys and the new role of Dr. Parks play a role in evaluation of evaluation of implementation and fidelity of policy and procedure.
What are the culturally responsive leadership theories that inform your decisions or actions? What are the important considerations in your role (i.e., authentic leadership, social justice leadership, ethical leadership, and/or moral transformative leadership)?
I believe that authentic leadership and transparency are what is needed in our community at present. That is why I have implemented the “four C’s” and why I shared my multi-generational, family story with all groups at the beginning of the year. I think with empathy and greater understanding we can build on the CREP’s our district has already implemented and grow our district into a model district for the nation.
Interview B, School Board Incumbent:
Please describe your understanding of culturally responsive education practices.
Both personally and as a school board I am proud of my district’s work with equity and diversity. The last two years with COVID have caused some division, and many hurtful things were said and done at board meetings in respect to our community’s diversity and culturally responsive practices in our schools. Misinformation was intentionally spread causing great hard in our district and community. I am personally committed to healing the hurts of the last few years and support the expansion of CREP’s in WCSD.
Please describe your role (currently or in the past) with implementing or advocating for the implementation of culturally responsive education practices.
As a board member the education of our children is of utmost importance to me. I have dedicated years of service to this district and CREP has been a big part of that. Over the last two years there has been contention in the community, with backlash against CREP’s. I have done my best to inform and educate community members and alleviate misinformation.
Please describe how the district and school board work together to design and implement
culturally responsive education practices. Please describe how you evaluate (in your role) the effectiveness of those policies once WCSD implements them.
The board and district work hand in hand for the betterment of education in this area. The board has held the district accountable in the past through community meetings and forums and by collecting data to track fidelity of implementation of policy.
What are the culturally responsive leadership theories that inform your decisions or actions? What are the important considerations in your role (i.e., authentic leadership, social justice leadership, ethical leadership, and/or moral transformative leadership)?
I believe in ethical leadership. As an elected official I have to act on the values and principles my constituents trust me to uphold. I base my leadership on trust and transparency.
The responses to my interview questions were very politically based and felt well-rehearsed but somewhat hollow. That is in part because I work in the district and see the disparity with my own eyes and in part due to political upheaval our district has faced combined with the upcoming election. My district has been under scrutiny in our state for some time and in the last year there has been some very concerning groups attending board meetings and attempting to influence policy and the hiring of the new superintendent. These groups are openly racist and have petitioned not only against CRT, culturally responsive policies and against hiring people of color to work in our district schools or as the superintendent. As discussed in “Voices from the red states: challenging racial positioning in some of the most conservative communities in America,” each state in America has a unique political culture. In Nevada, the space between counties is vast and each county here has a political culture all its own. The conflict between county politics has become what some feel to be a fight for traditional values and conservative attitudes. This fight has spilled over to our district. As our policies became more culturally responsive and inclusive (Han et al., 2018), the outlying counties felt our district is setting a tone for the state. This has become an area of contention and is a huge battleground for this coming election.
I feel, like many in my district, that this upcoming election will set the tone for the future of CREP’s in our district and I am concerned. Post COVID our district is facing huge issues with inclusion, behavior, and mental health. Culturally responsive teachers embed inclusion in every aspect of their student’s day. They utilize the classroom environment to communicate respect for the diversity of their students, to assure their students of the connectedness and community in the classroom and school, and to avoid marginalizing students (Culturally responsive classroom management strategies – ASDN). The district and board must recognize thar the social structure of our community can limit educational access to marginalized students. The issues our community is facing must be openly addressed with students and families to mitigate educational restrictions from both historical and ongoing racism. Our leaders need to set strong example by implementing policy and having zero tolerance for those opposed to CREP’s, not doing so diminishes our students’ educational prospects and widens divides that we have worked diligently to bridge (Steel, 2020).
Resources
Culturally responsive classroom management strategies – ASDN. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://www.asdn.org/wp-content/uploads/Culturally…
Han, K. T., Scull, W. R., Nganga, L., & Kambutu, J. (2018). Voices from the red states: Challenging racial positioning in some of the most conservative communities in America. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(1), 74–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2018.1468751
Steel, C. M. (2020). “a threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance.” Inequality in the United States: A Reader, 139–160. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003071709-17

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